The Future Won’t Wait: How to Build When Everything’s Changing | GaryVee Samsung Keynote

0:00Welcome back to another episode of the Gary V Audio Experience. In today's episode, we're sharing a special keynote that Gary delivered for Samsung. In this wide-ranging conversation, Gary opens up about how his immigrant beginnings informed his business sensibilities and ultimately led to the creation of numerous successful business ventures. He shares insights on leadership, why kindness and accountability matter more than ever, and how intuition has been the foundation of his biggest career moves. If you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or someone looking to stay ahead in today's fast-changing world, This episode is packed with timeless advice and real-world strategies.

0:34Let's dive in. Look, I was born in the Soviet Union, and that was a tough place to be born. I got very lucky to come to America when I was very young, three, four years old. My father got a job as a stock boy in a liquor store making$2 an hour, which was minimum wage in New Jersey in 1981, and built his American dream by working in that store, eventually becoming the manager, saving money for almost a decade, and then buying his own store in Springfield, New Jersey. I was born an entrepreneur. So by the time I was six, I was three, four lemonade stands running at the same time. By the time I was 12, I was making $1 ,000 a weekend selling baseball cards in the malls of New Jersey.

1:19And then when I turned 14, being the oldest son in an immigrant family, I was dragged into the store, my dad's store. And then he started paying me two bucks an hour. So I went from making 100 bucks a weekend selling baseball cards to making two bucks an hour bagging ice and stocking shelves for 15 hours a day. It was child labor. It was Soviet energy. My dad was, my mom is an angel of sunshine and unicorns and empathy and compassion and joy. She is the hero of my life. She is the foundation of my success. I only sit here because of the way she parented me. It's true.

2:07My dad is my man. We're so close, but it was a shock to my system. He was tough. He was not kind to his employees. It took me about 20 years to understand. He grew up in a Soviet environment where everyone stole from the businesses. Unless you're from Cuba or the Soviet Union, it's very hard for you to understand the culture where every citizen is stealing from the government. So he didn't trust anything. He today struggles with it at 72 years old. So it was a shock to the system, but I got very fortunate. About a year or two into working in the store, I realized that people collected wine. and that was able to connect to my passion around collecting trading cards and memorabilia and by the time I was 17 years old, I knew everything about wine, went head deep and just like in that video said, in my freshman year of college, I saw the internet and I knew that was gonna change the world intuitively which has been a huge compass in my life.

3:09I would argue that intuition is disproportionately the most underestimated and misunderstood attribute in society today. And I think we've spent a lot of time trying to take that out of people, and it's too bad, because I can tell you all of the great things that have ever happened to me have been based on that intuition, and that intuition led me to understanding something was about to happen. And, you know, I follow my intuition, and I follow it up with a lot of work, and in 1997, I launched one of the first e-commerce wine businesses in America, and for context, my father's business was doing$4 million a year top line.

3:46It was running on 10 % gross profit. So$400 ,000 before expenses. This was a family business. And in a five-year window with no cash infusion, no raising capital, not even having a credit line from the bank because my dad didn't believe in it, immigrant stuff, I grew that business from a four to a$65 million business on what is what I do for a living now, which is I day trade attention. I, as a marketer, as an operator, as a boss, as a creator, I try to pay attention to where the consumer's attention is versus where we think it is. And I try to become great at storytelling within it. And back then that was email marketing, having a website and doing Google AdWords.

4:29Today, it's understanding how to do organic, social, creative AI influencers and other things. but that has been the beacon of my career. I love that. I also love what you said about your family and you spoke about your parents but you've also said that your dad is your true mentor. Yeah. You know it's funny. If my dad was sitting here he's at a point in his life where he would interrupt you and tell you that I'm his mentor and it would make me emotional and it's the biggest compliment I walk on earth for but the reason I know my father's my mentor is for all my mother's rainbow and sunshines and positivity, she also did a remarkable job in keeping me accountable.

5:10One of the great missteps of modern parenting is that we are over-coddling our children. We are not creating consequences. Yeah.

5:22And there are people in the crowd who are clapping right now who are still paying for their 24-year-old's lifestyle.

5:31My parents did not have that problem. But my mom appreciated my gift of gab, my creativity. And that's great to a point, but my mom let me get away with a lot of lying and fibbing, because she thought it was cute and clever and she knew how to manage me. However, it put me in a place at 14 that all my charisma, all my dynamic capability to communicate, my dad really saved the course of my life because I believe if I had a different father who also didn't see the world the way he does, which by context, my father thinks a slight embellishment is the great lie of society. He's just like just a hardcore, like I remember very early on, I was like, dad, you know, we were driving home.

6:18I'm like, dad, I sold 86 bottles of what you wanted me to sell. The next day he came home and he was like, he looked super scary and he was, angry at me and I was like, he's like, you sold 84. That's who he was and I will tell you because I did fear my father at that point in my life, it scared me straight and I will tell you that I don't think that I would have been who I am nor been able to navigate this public life for the last 15 years without that addition of understanding that you've got to keep it real and I'm very grateful for that because I think a lot of people born with my level of gab go the wrong way because it's easy because you can get away with it and I'm very grateful for that.

7:03Yeah, and I like how I've seen, I see a number of your videos and in a lot of them you talk about being genuine and authentic and kind which I really admire. I would tell you as I sit here with all of you today, the single statement that I hate most in society is nice guys finish last. I think it's a very poisonous concept and I believe that kindness is the foundation of my financial success.

7:32That's great. And I think people are confused about that. You know, somebody, you know, thank you for those accolades but I'm empathetic enough to know someone sitting there right now thinking, you know, I've been kind but people have walked all over me my whole life. If you believe that in this crowd, you have to ask yourself, were you being kind or were you trying to manipulate a situation? A lot of times people give with expectation. True kindness is giving without expectation. When you're giving with expecting something in return, that's closer to manipulation than kindness. How do you see that in terms of a leadership style?

8:12Especially in a work environment where you need to demand, you need to deliver. Yeah, I mean, right before we did this, I asked you who's in here. CIOs, B2B partners, sales, marketing, tech. So I was like, wow, what a diverse group. But the one thing I can tell you is for anybody here who has an employee that reports to them, that connects all of us in this room. I think a lot about management. You know, I by nature believe in positivity and some of the stuff you're starting to sense from me on stage. On the flip side, I told you earlier, my father navigated management with fear. So I came in my natural self that believes that optimism and hope and kindness is best leadership.

8:59And then I watched up close and personal in my formative teenage years somebody who navigated leadership through fear. Like would come upstairs and curse at employees and be like, I'm gonna fire you. And I watched it up close and I got to see both contexts. I have an agency. I have a marketing agency that has about 2 ,000 people in it right now globally. It's 15 years old. The company's only 15 years old and we have over 100 people that have been at the company for over 10 years in the agency business. That is the thing I'm most proud of. The only way I think you can get that is by everyone here in this audience who has an employee underneath them to understand that fear, and this is really heavy.

9:45By show of hands, who's in sales? this is gonna really resonate for all of you. Whether it's direct, and I'm sure you've had bosses like that, or whether it's indirect, because people are clever, you know, the concept of like, if we don't hit the numbers this month, who knows what's gonna happen? No. That stuff works to a short term. Fear is an incredibly effective tool for the short term. It is an incredibly vulnerable tool for the long term. and I think parenting, politics, and bosses are very good at deploying fear. And I think for me, it's very obvious that that is the wrong path. So I believe accountability, I believe in that, I believe in candor, something I've actually am great on on stage, but have struggled as a manager through my career.

10:38But I think we need to, I think optimism and hope and joy is a much better weapon. Number two, I will tell everybody, for the ones here that feel like they're a good manager or a good leader, the thing I tell all my direct reports and my leadership is I don't need peacetime generals. No crap you're nice when all the numbers are coming in. I want to know how you act when it's bad. I think one thing that I would challenge everybody to debate in here is if you want to get to the highest levels, you need to be at your kindest. You need to be at your warmest. You need to be at your best when the shit is hitting the fan.

11:25Thank you.

11:29Well, let's stay on leadership. We're talking about leaders. We're talking about style of leadership. We have a number of leaders in here that are working towards, and all of us within our organizations are navigating through a lot of changes that are happening. Tariffs? A lot of things that are happening, yes. Yes. So how do you think of creating highly scalable, adaptable teams? By not crying about things you can't control.

11:59And one of the good things about macro changes, like a tariff, is like, obviously there's some variables to this, but I never cry when we're all in it. You know, when we're all in it, when your competitors have to deal with the same thing, obviously there's issues where a domestic, I understand those variables, but for me, for example, my biggest financial booms of my career have been during recessions. Mainly because I go into double offense in those moments and most people go into defense. And so I personally root for economic demise. Well let's talk about the investments that you're making.

12:43You are a serial entrepreneur. Yes. And so some of the investments that you've made have been really good. Yes. So let's talk about some of the positive approaches in terms of how you make some of those investments, what you're looking at. Well, I'm a big fan of when I'm an angel investor to bet on the jockey and the horse. Meaning, at my best, I will like both the entrepreneur, her or him, and her or his idea. At my worst, I am only picking one of those things. Obviously, especially for the people that really know my career, when you invest in Facebook and Twitter and Snap and Coinbase, and I've had a lot of big wins, and they tend to have the same thing, which is I've observed that there's something brewing, but then when I sat down with the leader, it solidified for me.

13:42When I invested in Facebook in 2007, I put every dollar I had in my savings account to invest in that company and that happened three minutes into having dinner with Mark. It was just black and white to me that he understood consumer behavior and Facebook was far enough along. It wasn't like I was seeing it at the idea phase so that was easy. I wish I had more money back then but I tend to look for the jockey and the horse. That's great. One of the things I love working about Samsung, we've been talking about R &D, how much we invest in R &D and innovations. One of the things I also love is that we're not afraid of any kind of failure.

14:20We love trying new things, especially within marketing. I love that about my role, that we can try new things. So in terms of failure, there's always so many lessons that you learn that you then are able to deploy and come back stronger, better. If you had to talk on the flip side in terms of some of the failures because you've seen investments like Facebook, but you've also seen investments like Uber, for example. Uber hurts. I actually got into Uber fairly early, but I missed the first year and a half, and that cost me somewhere in the ballpark of$400 million. I was investing$25 ,000 and$50 ,000 checks at the time.

14:56If you go back to the first book I ever wrote up there, Crush It!, it's the first business book I ever wrote. So it's important, as you can imagine, I literally acknowledge my whole family and one random human being, Travis, the co-founder and CEO of Crush It because he was in between gigs at the time and he read the book and gave me some good feedback and I thought he contributed so I wanted to shout him out. So if I wrote my normal$25 ,000 or$50 ,000 check depending on the size of that check, today that would have been worth somewhere between$300 ,000 and$700 ,000 ,000. dollars, which, you know, on$25 ,000 to get three to$400 million, that's a pretty good ROI.

15:37I missed it, and I shouldn't have missed it. What I learned was what I talked about earlier, which is I need to live my truth and eat my own dog food. When Uber came around and I met with Travis, and to Travis's credit, I passed, and he then came back to me at a talk I did in San San Francisco met me and asked me again to invest in Uber and I passed again because I was playing defense. I had just bought my first apartment, significant apartment in Manhattan. I'd been less liquid than I'd ever been in my life and unlike when I did Facebook five or six years earlier, I just had a child and I played defense and it cost me.

16:20And I'm very mad at you for bringing it up. Well, where I was going with it. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. In fact, I'm sorry to interrupt just to bring value. In fact, it's the best. First of all, in general, the way I live life is like, okay, I would have made that investment. Clearly, with 500 million more dollars in liquid, my life would be different than it's been the last seven years. And I always say to myself, cool, I could have made that investment, but that might have led to me being in different places at different times. And maybe while I was crossing the street in San Francisco at a meeting, I would have been hit by a car, and I might be dead right now if I invested in Uber.

16:55I mean this. I know it's like a giggle, giggle, but that's how I think about life. The butterfly effect, you never know. And so I don't know. As I sit here today, happy, everyone in my life is healthy, I'm thrilled I passed on Uber twice and missed out on$500 million because I'm alive. Thank you. Well, I'm glad I brought that up. So let's switch gears to social media. Okay. Clearly you're one of the OG influencers. You have so much content that you build. We have marketers in the room. We all build content. We're all building our personal brand. How do you think about content and building content?

17:33I don't think a single person in this room, either if they're building their personal brand on LinkedIn or if they're a marketing executive for Samsung or another company, is spending anywhere close to enough money on social. Why do you say that? Because it's underpriced. Because, let's use Samsung, such a big company, because I see too much from you in other places and not as much as I would want if I owned this company within social. Let me give you an example. Who here runs the marketing budget for whatever business you're in? Like you're pretty close to how much you spend on working and non-working dollars.

18:08Raise your hands. Just want to see. Hire, don't be bashful. That's a good thing. All right, nine, 10. For the 10 people, for example, for the 10 people, I believe every business on earth, small business owning one pizza shop all the way up to Samsung. B2B, B2C, B2G running ads and doing creative in LinkedIn. I believe that every company on earth as we sit here today in late March 2025 should be spending 20 % of its entire marketing budget on just organic social creative. Not social media. just the content that you post organically. As you know, because you're a marketer, that is a staggering number to the way most companies run it right now.

18:55What people don't understand in Fortune 5000 land is that when you commit that level of monies to making pictures and videos and written words across the eight platforms right now that have all the attention of society, from TikTok to LinkedIn and everything in between, the algorithms now work in a way where people in this room who've never posted once on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or Twitter X or YouTube can get many views with no followers. Followers is no longer the primary metric. In fact, I don't even measure my followers or my clients' followers at all. I don't even look at reports with followers because people don't even follow anymore because the content is coming to you.

19:42In fact, I would argue that we no longer live in social media. We live in interest media where the content's coming to you. Anybody, I see all your heads. You all know this. Anybody who's on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok now knows you're getting content coming to you, especially TikTok and Instagram. The content that you're most into right now is coming to you. When you know that and you know how to do that science, what ends up happening is when you start with social, organic, creative, and that level of financial commitment to get that much out. Again, Samsung. Just let's use one division, the appliance division.

20:22The Samsung appliance division, I think, should be putting out 20 pieces of organic, new, creative a day. Gary, I love that. That's your new KPI. I want to get to the punchline of this. because when you see every 18 of those 20 posts get a thousand views because that's your norm. When you see the one that gets 18 ,000 or the one that gets 400 ,000 I'll give you an extreme one. I don't know if you guys know what MiraLax is but they're a client of ours right now. If you know what it is this won't surprise you. They get 363 views on average on their social posts. We have a post this week that got 15 million views.

21:08You can see the impact on its Amazon sales rank. You can see the impact already on the, in a week, you can see the financial impact. When you then know that that creative, don't forget, that creative can't get views unless people like it or are interested. Marketing is built on relevance, my friends. Relevance leads to consideration. When you consider, then you might buy. For 50 years, we've been trying to figure out if the creative's good in meetings with me and you, focus groups, animatics, fake reports. The algorithms have solved this problem for us. What happens when you start with that, now the 80 % of money you have left, now you can amplify that creative.

21:51Now you can turn that into a campaign. Working media, the ad dollars, has spent the last 60 years disguising bad creative. It can now amplify great creative. this is the biggest shift in marketing since the advent of the television. That's great. We love it. Well, I want to talk a little bit about content. You create a lot of content, and in terms of your personal brand, what you're putting out, especially LinkedIn, some of the other social media, what's the most meaningful content that you've produced, or that you like producing? Probably the one that's putting pressure on parents to create self-esteem, not fake trophies.

22:34I think the content I make that challenges modern parenting around, hey, instead of over-focusing on straight A's in school, which is not a proxy to happiness or success in society, with that, you know, hey, instead of focusing on their popularity or how good they are at sports, how about while we've got these little ones for this very small window, how about we actually build actual self-esteem, which is the only way they will combat all the things that scares the crap out of every parent in this room, that content, especially when it hits and gets 50, 30 million views when I know that the audience got the message, that's the most fulfilling because that's real life.

23:23Your bank account from Uber or not, Uber is not real life. The health and well-being of your family and their general happiness and content, that's real life and that's disproportionately the content that I'm most passionate about. That's great to hear.

23:46I want to shift gears and we spoke a little bit about, you know, you spoke about the internet coming and then we spoke about social media. You're talking about the seven different platforms. I look at gaming in a big way. So Twitch, TikTok, of course, a faster growing channel especially for gaming. What do you see happening? What do you see next? Of course, AI, we've been talking about AI all morning and the different tools that are available. We talk about social commerce. I'm, what's next that's like, is always when the distribution changes, right? Like when the printing press was invented, it changed society, right?

24:23Now you had books and for example, a staggering percentage of the first 10 million books ever made were religious books, and that reinforced the fact that we have a religious society. Then the television, excuse me, then the radio came along. I mean, Winston Churchill's speech over the radio cannot be underestimated on how it potentially changed the world, and that's how the world ran. Whoever was winning on radio had incredible impact. Then the television came along. As recently as the 1960 presidential election, for the people at home that listened to the debate between Nixon and Kennedy, they felt that Nixon won the debate, but the people that watched it on TV felt that JFK won the debate.

25:10I don't know if you know this, but JFK is dramatically more handsome than Richard Nixon. And then cable came along, and now we're in the internet era, and we're in a mature internet where social media, whether the people in this audience like it or not, or have a political point of view, or think it's bad or good. It is the dominant force of our society delivered through a phone. I do not see a world where a phone like you make and your competitors make is the primary device of our society in 20 years. I find it unlikely. Obviously, Facebook has been very aggressive in developing glasses. I would never underestimate Samsung and its competitors on what they're up to in the R &D labs that nobody in this room even knows about because you've got to do the retina scan and there's only six people that even know.

26:04Well, we just spoke about that. Funny you mentioned that just this morning on something exciting that's coming up. So I believe that the next big change will probably result in when the phone that we carry the way we know it today gets challenged, the way that phone did to the television. And just like, obviously you have a very big TV business, these things aren't winner take all. They're just a process of where attention goes. So that's on my mind long term. Short term, I'm infatuated with a lot of things. For example, influencer marketing, if I go very nerdy on marketing, is a very big deal.